Advocates for Opioid Recovery is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing a science-based, evidence-based treatment system that can reduce death and suffering from opioid addiction, and produce more long-term opioid addiction survivors who are positively engaged in their families and communities.

It is no secret that when it comes to politics, there is very little on which the two of us agree. But we both believe this: The opioid epidemic is now the greatest public health and public safety crisis facing this nation.

The entire Chapter 4 of today’s Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health includes principles for effective treatment of addiction. With the Surgeon General’s endorsement, there should no longer be any debate about what evidence-based medicine for addiction treatment entails.

As the new administration prepares to take office in January, Patrick Kennedy and his colleagues urge the President-elect to focus energy and resources on addressing a public health crisis plaguing our country’s citizens: addiction - and, in particular, opioid addiction.

In what may be his last significant act as President Barack Obama’s surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy released a report Thursday calling for a major cultural shift in the way Americans view drug and alcohol addiction.

“For far too long, too many in our country have viewed addiction as a moral failing,” Murthy said in the report. “It is a chronic illness that we must approach with the same skill and compassion with which we approach heart disease, diabetes and cancer.”

Advocates for Opioid Recovery is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing a science-based, evidence-based treatment system that can reduce death and suffering from opioid addiction, and produce more long-term opioid addiction survivors who are positively engaged in their families and communities. Contact us at [email protected].